RPT-UPDATE 1-Top mobile phone makers market share dip-report
(see reference to ALA at bottom - sf)
Reuters, 09/13/2000 02:55
(Adds details, background)
By Paul de Bendern
HELSINKI, Sept 12 (Reuters) - Nokia, Motorola and Ericsson, the world's leading mobile phone makers, saw their global market shares dip slightly in the second quarter versus the first quarter, industry research group Dataquest said on Tuesday.
Nokia Oyj Abp (HELS:NOK1V) of Finland had a market share of 27.5 percent compared to 27.9 percent in the first quarter while its nearest rival U.S. Motorola Inc. (NYSE:MOT) saw its position dip to 15.6 percent from 16 percent, research showed.
Sweden's Telefonaktiebolaget LM Ericsson, which has been plagued by components shortages and production problems at its loss-making cellular phone division, saw its market share fall to 10.3 percent in the second quarter from 11.5 percent.
This comes as competition heats up in the sector and more mobile phone makers enter the field.
But both Nokia (NYSE:NOK), the world most profitable mobile phone maker, and Motorola sold more mobile phones in the second quarter than the first quarter, Dataquest said. Ericsson sold slightly less.
Nokia, which stunned the market in July by warning that third quarter profits would be lower than the second quarter due to the delay of new cellular phone models, remains by far the leading player in this increasingly competitive market.
There are now about 570 million mobile phone users globally.
While Nokia said in July it would concentrate on gaining market share, even if it was at the expense of margins in the short term, both Motorola and Ericsson have said they would rather focus on profitability for their mobile phone divisions.
Nokia's success lies partly in logistics skills, but also its ability to quickly launch both trendy and high-tech models in volumes that cater for the various demands of consumers.
Motorola and Ericsson have not been as successful here, unable to see at an early stage the importance of the cheap phones, which now account for 60 percent of all phone sales.
While leading mobile phone makers give some information about their market share they do not give comparisons with their rivals. Gartner Group's Dataquest is one of the few researchers providing global market share data for most cellphone makers.
GETTING CROWDED AMONG SMALLER PLAYERS
Dataquest showed that Panasonic (TOKYO:6752), Alcatel (SBF:CGEP), Siemens , and Samsung (KOREA:05930) were all roughtly neck and neck with about 5.5 or 5.6 percent market shares each.
Of the smaller players South Korea's Samsung Electronics Co. saw its market share dip to 5.5 percent from 6.3 percent.
This second tier of cellphone makers are what should be worrying for the larger players, analysts say, especially Siemens which has been moving fast to streamline its phone unit and has the advantage that it makes mobile network gear as well as wireless phones while Panasonic and South Samsung do not.
Germany's Siemens like Ericsson has begun outsourcing phone production to get them out to the market quicker and cheaper.
But Asian players are betting that a new generation of technology, such as third-generation or UMTS, will be their window of opportunity to gain market share, analysts say.
France's Alcatel has moved past Siemens as Western Europe's third largest cellphone maker, with a 12.4 percent market share compared to Siemens' 12.1 percent. In the first quarter Siemens held the third position, behind Motorola and leader Nokia.
Ericsson is only fifth in market share in Western Europe, while Philips was sixth, according to GartnerDataquest. paul.debendern@reuters.com))
Copyright 2000, Reuters News Service |
